A review by jayati
Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach

5.0

Not Here To Be Liked is a fun and fast paced YA contemporary that follows Eliza Quan who finds herself in the middle of a feminist movement in her school after the essay she wrote on how she was unfairly not elected to be editor-in-chief for her school newspaper as she was a girl vs the other candidate who was under qualified but was chosen because he was a 'male' goes viral.

Eliza is a generally 'unlikeable' girl, being ambitious, hard working and not bothered to be polite to others and I absolutely loved it! She knows what she wants and what she is worth and goes for it despite how others react to it and what they say about her. I also really enjoyed seeing how she was herself flawed and she acknowledged that and doubted herself and tried to do her best.

The romance between Eliza and Len was also pretty cute! I liked how it developed and how we got to know Len slowly and liked him as we understood his true motives and it was really cute and fun to read about!

I also really liked all the side characters and how well fleshed out they were! We also get to see the side character's perspectives on different issues and how they should be handled and this really helped make the conversations in the book nuanced and intersectional and allowed us to look at different perspectives and how different people approach feminism.

Overall, I highly recommend this book!